What Would I Give
by 1tenaj
Summary: The Disney movie is all well and good, but they don't really go into detail. About pretty much anything. My version. Rated a strong T just in case.
1. First Contact

_Obviously I own nothing. Please review to let me know what you think, even if you hate it enough to use some rather choice words. Definitely comment if I make a grammar or spelling mistake. I HATE when I read them and it interrupts my flow._

She didn't really know what it was about the humans that fascinated her. She should be scared of them with what her father told her, and she knew nothing about them otherwise.

But somehow she knew what it was about them. It was _everything_. The ocean was an amazing place, but with the traditions and rules, there was only so much one could do.

Of course, she'd broken a lot of the rules; she was breaking one right now.

She broke the surface, treading water easily. The sight in front of her was something she'd seen a thousand times before, but no one had seen it from where she was in at least thirty years, fearing her father's wrath upon finding them on the surface. Even Ariel shivered to think of his reaction to discovering his daughter staring at his worst enemies in wonder. But even a glimpse of the boat was worth it.

There was a party going on, that much she could tell from looking at the bright explosions shooting off of the decks. Ariel swam as close to the boat as she could, touching the wood and marveling at how it floated so leisurely. The shouts from above increased and something like a song started up. Intrigued, Ariel grasped the ridges of the boat and pulled herself up to a small hollow outside a window. She sat in the hollow and grabbed the edge of the deck, raising herself just enough to see the mysterious events unfolding.

A band of humans were surrounding someone, singing loudly and off key to him while another man brought a—was it called cake? — and held it in front of whoever it was. Ariel winced at their off-key melody, but as the crowd of men parted she could see that the man was grinning from ear to ear.

_He's very handsome_, she thought, noting his jet black curls of hair so long that they almost obscured his chiseled face and bright blue eyes. When the song ended, the man grinned and started talking to the others, but Ariel was distracted by a huge gray and white beast that darted towards her, baring its teeth. Before she had time to duck back to her hollow or dive into the sea, it was upon her. Ariel winced and closed her eyes, but opened them in surprise when she felt its tongue rasp against her cheek. The animal beamed and licked her face again. Ariel suppressed a giggle, fearing someone might hear her, but she did pat its head gently. Huh. Maybe this creature was more like her pet seahorse, and not a shark.

"Max?"

The animal turned and bounded toward the speaker, who had been the center of attention earlier. Clearly she had been right about this Max; it was obviously the man's pet. The man's intense blue eyes swept over the deck where Max had been snuffling around, and stopped at her.

_Oh no._

She dropped from her spot on the deck and swung into the hollow, ignoring the stranger's call of, "Hello? Wait!" A second later she heard the man's boots overhead as he scanned the surrounding area. Two small _thuds_ sounded as he knelt down to check the hollow. Ariel huddled against the wall and prepared to dive into the water twenty feet below. Although it looked like it would hurt, it was her only option. Before she could leap forward though, a voice sounded, "Eric, what are you doing? We can't have you drowning on your 19th birthday!"

The man stood up and turned away from the sea, replying, "I know, I just…thought I saw…Never mind, it's probably just my first glass of wine."

_His name is Eric. And he's only one year older than me!_ Ariel shoved these thoughts out of her mind. As much as she wanted to meet Eric again, there was no way it was going to happen. Her more immediate attention went to her arms, sore from holding herself up for so long. Clambering back down to the oh-so-familiar waters, she took a deep breath, savoring the air before she plunged back into the ocean.


	2. First Kiss

…..

Why was she coming back?

Ariel honestly didn't know the answer. Maybe it was just because she'd seen the boat again, after coming back from her hideout. Maybe she just wanted to make sure that her father didn't drown the boat like he'd done with so many others.

Maybe it was him.

Eric.

At 18, Ariel was at the perfect age for marriage. Add in the fact that she was the last princess of King Triton, and she had suitors swarming all over her. But the few that wanted her, and not her body or her title, they weren't right. They were formal and uptight and traditional. They had to be; otherwise her father would definitely not have allowed them to see her. And none of them ever looked at her, really looked her in the eye like he did.

Whatever the reason, she found herself looking at the boat once again as it swayed over the waters only a few hours later. By this time, it was well into the night, and there were fewer sailors on the deck than before. With a thrill, Ariel noted that he was there. Her Eric.

_Whoa, whoa, whoa. When did he become mine?_ she asked herself.

Just then, she heard shouts of alarm and wondered what it was, praying that her father wasn't sinking the ship. Craning her neck, she discovered that what she imagined would have been far better.

The ship was giving off a horrible smell as bright orange-yellow lights started to consume the deck. _Fire_, Ariel thought, remembering her lessons in which she was taught how humans killed fish and burned them. She never believed in fire, or burn, whatever that was, but seeing it now, she understood why the sea kingdom hated and feared humans so much.

The fire was annihilating the boat.

Powerless, Ariel watched anxiously as the men threw water at the flames to no effect. The prince in particular seemed to be everywhere at once, running down below the deck to alert whoever was there, dousing the fire, and trying to keep the damaged vessel from tipping over. Despite the sailors' efforts, though, the boat was slowly crumbling in on itself.

Ariel watched from afar as Eric shook his head and changed tactics, ordering all of his men off onto tiny rubbery-looking boats in teams of five or six. She held her breath, waiting as Eric started to set the last boat free, with himself and two other men on it.

Suddenly Eric shouted out something and raced back among the flames. For a moment he was visible, his face filled with panic and determination. Then he vanished below decks as the doorway to it became wreathed in flames. _Why is he going back?! _Ariel almost screamed. She swam closer to the ship, waiting for the prince to reappear, dreading every minute that passed.

_He can't possibly have survived, with no way to get back up, _she thought.

But her intense worry was chased away as Eric became visible again, holding Max. Eric's clothes were singed by the fire and he looked exhausted, but he managed to set Max down and watched as he ran over to the boat where Eric's two shipmates were waiting.

Eric was about ten feet from the ship when the rigging collapsed.

Ariel screamed this time, but her voice was drowned out by the sailors' cries as their boat floated away from the vessel. By this time, only a fraction of the hull was left and most of boat was comprised of the smoking boards that drifted among the hideous wreckage. Ariel surged downward, scrutinizing everything around her in attempt to find the young man, desperately hoping that Eric was still alive.

She found him slowly sinking, about twenty feet from the surface. His eyes were closed and he wasn't moving. _Why not just let him drown?_ the part of her that was like her father whispered.

_Shut up_, the rest of her replied as she wrapped her arms around his chest and tugged him towards the surface.

As she broke through gasping, she took in the fact that his chest had the slightest rise and fall to it. He was breathing. Her sigh of relief was punctured by a ragged yelp as a piece of the boat that was still smoldering burned her tail, leaving a patch of open flesh that stung horribly. Ariel shut down the tears that sprang unbidden to her eyes and forced herself to swim towards where she knew the shore was.

…..

She had been swimming for God knows how long when she spotted the shore. It had been almost 2am when she had found the ship for the second time, and now the sky was lightening to the pale gray that comes before dawn. Normally swimming took about as much effort as talking, but normally her tail wasn't damaged to the point that she could barely swim, and normally she wasn't carrying a 150-pound human while attempting to keep his head above the surface.

A 150-pound human who might not be alive if she didn't get him to shore fast enough.

The thought was enough to give her one last burst of adrenaline as her muscles gave out and she finally crumpled onto the sand, being careful to set Eric down gently next to her. She lay there, completely drained, not even capable of lifting her head to see where they had ended up.

After almost twenty minutes, she found the energy to sit up and glance around. She and Eric were on a small inlet near a cave, hidden from anyone who could have been nearby by a well-placed patch of rocks jutting out towards her home. But she ignored the feeling that she should be on her way back now and focused on the human in front of her.

He looked beautiful despite the fact that his clothes were in smoky tatters and barely preserved his modesty, his hair was a crumpled mess, he had burns that were far from trivial on his arms and feet.

His feet.

She couldn't resist leaning down to gently prod an undamaged part of his toes, wondering what it would be like to have them on her, to be able to be human and discover more about the world and who she herself was. Absentmindedly singing to herself, she tapped him gently with no response. If not for the warmth of his breath on her face, Ariel would have sworn that he was dead.

Suddenly Eric's vivid blue eyes shot open and he convulsed, coughing over and over again. Ariel jumped back at first, but when she realized he was in pain she put a hand on his shoulder and patted his back, the way she would have if someone choked. Apparently it worked, for he coughed up whatever seawater in his lungs that there was and breathed heavily, barely able to keep his eyes open. Ariel curled her tail out of view while simultaneously easing him back down.

"Who are you?" he managed.

"Sshh," she replied, "You don't need to know my name. I should go now that you're safe."

"What about my crew?"

Ariel couldn't help but smile at how much he cared for his crew. "They're all safe and probably looking for you right now." She made to dive back into the water but was stopped when his hand wrapped around her bare waist.

"No, please, don't leave!" he rasped desperately.

"I have to, I can't be around huma-"she halted, realizing she'd said too much, and hoping he hadn't noticed.

"I would give anything to stay, but I can't. I can't," she repeated, unfastening his hand.

"No, wait!" Eric tried to stop her, but Ariel just smiled, kissed his cheek, and melted back into the water as Eric went unconscious.


	3. First Love

_Wow, this is exciting. There's a follower on my first fanfic! Please read and review._

Eric drifted awake what seemed like minutes after the mysterious girl left.

Everything about her was beautiful, from her eyes to her voice to her skin to the way she looked at him.

And of course, she saved him from drowning a mile out from sea.

But how could that have happened? Even the most trained sailor couldn't have swum a mile through an ocean, and certainly not while carrying him. To do that she would have had to be superhuman.

Or maybe not human. The thought made his eyes widen as the hazy memory of her cutting herself off. "I can't be around huma-" she'd said. Was it possible she meant humans? If so, then she must have been something else. Come to think of it, she looked distinctly like the face that he saw at the beginning of the party. But the boat was so far out and there were absolutely no boats within ten miles.

At that moment, two things emerged; a splitting headache and Max.

"Max," he called as loudly as he could. Damn his head hurt. It was like the mystery woman who was trapped in his mind was trying to hammer her way out. As his first mate came running towards him and helped him stagger to his feet, Eric made a mental note to search up what his rescuer might possibly be, if it wasn't just the agonizing pain deluding him. He made a vow to spend every minute of the coming months by the sea, so that she could return.

He loved her already.


	4. Choices

…..

Over the next few days, Ariel visited the land as much as possible, always to watch Eric. Oftentimes he was on the cluster of rocks where they had come ashore, and he was always humming the melody that Ariel had sung to him. Although it was getting harder and harder to slip away from her father, Ariel always managed it.

She tore her eyes away from Eric after almost half an hour, wanting to stay longer, but it was a terrible risk already.

Coming back underwater, she stopped.

It was her father.

His beard was a dark gray and held all of the waves and whirlpools and storms in the world. A glowing green trident sparked at his side. He had wavelike tattoos running up his arms. And he looked angrier than Ariel had ever seen him.

They were about a quarter of a mile away from Eric, but still only twenty feet beneath the sea. Ariel had no doubt that he knew.

"What do you think you're doing." It wasn't a question. Ariel shrank away, choosing not to respond.

"Answer me." Triton's voice was calm, like they were talking about the weather, but his eyes told her something different.

"Daddy-," Ariel tried but was cut off by a wave of his hand.

"You are my youngest daughter. I was so lenient with you. You had SO FEW RULES!" Triton bellowed out suddenly.

"You are 18. You know the god damn rules."

Without warning, he backhanded her, sending her into a nearby wall. She was crying.

"Daddy, I have the right to choose who I'm with," she managed.

He grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her closer as she cried out.

"You have NO RIGHTS ANYMORE! I gave you a choice, and you chose wrong. You chose humans. You will be married in three days, or you will be exiled." He stormed away, leaving her in shock with the knowledge that her freedom was gone, and that her father had hit her for the first time.

…..

She spent the night in a cave near her hideout, knowing that her father didn't care where she was or how she was doing tonight. Normally she would have talked to the merman she always went to, Flounder, but she knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Besides, his tail was the exact same color as Triton's.

Flounder somehow still managed to find her. He was a mermaid's merman, attracting the attention of any girl he passed by, with his toned physique and almost luminous green eyes.

Ariel had never thought of him like that though, and she was sure Flounder didn't either. They had been friends ever since he saved her from a shark, and while he knew she went up to the surface, she never told him about Eric.

Flounder didn't say a word, just put an arm around her. They sat together for a while until she was able to answer the question in his eyes.

"His name is Eric," she told him, motioning upwards. Flounder understood immediately, drawing circles on her shoulder.

"It's stupid," she muttered, "I barely know him anyways."

"Love is always stupid, but in your case it sounds like the best kind of stupid," he offered.

"I have to get married in three days," Ariel blurted out

"Have to?" Flounder inquired, tracing the finger-shaped bruises on her cheek.

"Have to," Ariel confirmed. "Or I could go into exile." Their eyes met.

"Is it that bad?" he asked, not even needing her answer. She nodded anyway.

"Look, Ariel, exile sounds bad, and so does a forced marriage, but there are worse ways to be exiled," Flounder said, suddenly somber.

When Ariel raised her eyebrows questioningly, he elaborated, "Ursula."

An involuntary shiver took over Ariel at the thought. Only the most tragic and desperate resorted to seeing the sea witch, and judging by the rumors even fewer were alive at the end. To visit Triton's cousin was automatic exile.

"I could go there," she pondered, "I could just go in and tell her about Eric. If I don't like what she has to say, I can leave. She can't just keep me there."

"Don't. Ariel," Flounder insisted.

"I would choose exile over the other option anyways."

"Fine, we can check it out, but I'm going with you. No, I am. I don't care," he told her, ignoring her protests.

Ariel glared at Flounder, and he glared back, before reluctantly taking each other's hand and swimming towards the rumored location of Ursula's lair, the Nefastus.


	5. Traps

…..

As they swam through the forbidden area of the exiled, Ariel could see why the name _Nefastus _was Latin for "forbidden". Every inch of the place was shadowy and jagged, and one particularly eerie section had gouges in the rocks and a dark red liquid smeared everywhere. The setting was definitely not helping the sense of foreboding she was doing her best to ignore.

_Flounder is here with me. She can't keep _both _of us here. _Ariel tried to reassure herself, but it wasn't working, and judging by Flounder's expression he was experiencing the same thing.

As their apprehension of the Nefastus grew, so did the tension between Ariel and Flounder. At last, Ariel was ready to admit that what she was going to do was simply too risky, but just then, they reached a cave, and a mental image of Eric's face reminded Ariel of her motivation.

They knew it was Ursula's cave even though there wasn't a sign hanging on the wall. The darkness just seemed to center around the hollow, and a sickly green glow emanated from the inside.

Ariel turned on Flounder and told him, "So we're here. Now go back," trying not to leave any room for argument.

Of course, Flounder did not oblige. "The hell I am," he told her. "What if she tries something? It'll just be you.

"Mmhm," Ariel scoffed, trying not to let on how much she did want him to stay. "What will you do? Summon your eons-old powers of the sea?"

"I'm not leaving. You can't stop me. I won't make any decisions for you, I swear, but I will NOT go back."

Ariel turned and swam furiously away, knowing she had lost, leaving Flounder and her fear behind for a moment.

Her fear returned when iron bars shot down from the entry archway, leaving her separated and imprisoned within.

…..

He tugged on the bars desperately, as did Ariel.

"Damn, Ariel!" he yelled. "Damn it, I told you!"

Flounder watched as his Ariel chewed her lip and tried to put on a brave face for him. _Whoa, whoa, whoa. When did she become mine?_ he asked himself.

"Jeez," Ariel said.

Ugh, why had he even agreed to do this? The guy who gets the girl is supposed to tell her he loves her, not help her find someone else.

"Alright," he told her, "I'm going to find a rock or something and see if one of these bars can't be knocked down. After this, he wasn't going to let Ariel a foot away from him. He reached through the bars and took her hand reassuringly, resisting the urge to kiss it. "We'll be fine."

"Okay," she murmured, and even though she looked close to tears she was still beautiful.

He backed away slowly, wishing that it was him on the other side.


	6. Transformed

…..

As Flounder swam away from her, the green glow seemed to turn brighter and eerier. Ariel put her back to the wall and faced the glow, not noticing the black tentacle slithering towards her in the shadows.

With a tug she was jerked along the floor by her tail, getting a handful of cuts and bruises from the stones underneath. She tried to grab one of the bars and succeeded; Flounder apparently heard the struggle and sprinted back.

"Hold on!" he shouted, but he was too far away to do any good as her grip strength faded and she was forced to let go.

The tentacle released her after dragging her into the cave. As Ariel got up, she noted the sinister feeling of her surroundings; the small pieces of seaweed that seemed to have faces (and sad ones at that); the small bottles of oddly colored ooze; the huge cauldron that stood in the center of the room.

And then there was the sea witch herself, whom Ariel was almost positive had not been present a second ago.

The rumors about her being an Ecaelia were true. She was a half-mermaid, half-octopus that terrified Ariel far more than any of the pictures did. Ursula beckoned Ariel closer with a blood red talon, saying, "Come child! I won't bite!" in a voice that bled insincerity.

"So it looks like one little mermaid has a very big problem, with wanting to get away from her father and that marriage…But at the same time, there's that handsome sweetheart Eric. What do you want Auntie Ursula to do about this, dear?"

Ariel bit her lip, having no choice but to ask for the wildest—and only—solution that had crossed her mind.

"I want to be a human," she said, almost in a whisper.

"Excellent, poopsie," the Ecaelia offered, but it seemed as if some of her condescending seductiveness had vanished. With a snap of her fingers, a contract materialized in front of Ariel whilst Ursula swept across the grotto, snatching jars off the walls and tossing the contents into the cauldron.

Ariel looked closely at the nearly illegible contract and its tiny print. The only part she could make out was her name.

"I won't sign until you tell me exactly what it says," she demanded.

"I will turn you human, you will see your Eric, and you will be with him," the sea witch replied without hesitance.

"I want to be able to read it."

"I'm afraid I don't know how to do that, dear," Ursula's voice was cold and unsympathizing.

"Then I can't sign." Ariel tried to sound confident and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Then what shall I do with this potion? Hmm…" Ursula mocked her. "Ooh, with a drop of this, it's a death potion. If I add some narwhal claw, it becomes a forgetfulness potion. Or I can use dried coral root and use it to move inanimate objects, like those very sharp bars that your stubborn friend back there is trying to open."

"Stop," Ariel begged, thinking hard. _What if I just yelled out to Flounder and told him to run and get help? _As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she was bound still by one tentacle and roughly gagged by another.

"Just sign, poopsie. I'm trying to help," the witch told her, sounding very unhelpful.

The only person that this could hurt was herself, and it was better than having Ursula kill Flounder, Ariel decided. She picked up the quill hesitantly, and signed.

Immediately, the contract rolled up and disappeared as Ursula cackled mercilessly. "Here you go, dear," as a potion was shoved down the mermaid's throat, "And here I go," Ursula finished, as a strange black hand appeared. It floated toward Ariel's neck, who was thrashing powerlessly in the grips of a tentacle. The sea witch started talking, not even pausing as Ariel started screaming from the agony that was assaulting her tail, lungs, and throat.

"You will get to be human for three days, without your voice, and in that time your prince must kiss you by sundown on the third day. He must fall in love with you, and HE must kiss you. Otherwise, you turn back to a mermaid, and belong to me," Ursula carelessly indicated the pathetic creatures on the surface of the floor, "forever."

"Unfortunately I have to give you a chance to see Eric again and that I wouldn't touch you while you were human, so off you go…" Ursula drawled.

The tentacle that was holding the princess threw her from the cave with such force that she almost killed Flounder. Fortunately, the young merman took in her legs and the bluish color of her face and realized what had happened quickly.

"Just a few more seconds," he told her as he shoved her towards the surface.

Ariel collapsed on the sand, almost naked and barely alive as the burn that she got the night she saved Eric started bleeding.


	7. Rescuer

…..

The first thing that registered was the pain.

It felt like someone ripped her larynx out. Every breath she took was waterlogged and shallow. The burn that would have healed quickly on her tail seemed to get more severe by the second for her legs.

She had legs.

Legs.

Ariel started laughing, partly from shock but also because she had a chance to be truly happy. Her laughter stopped when she realized that there was no sound coming out and looked at Flounder. He looked more worried than she had ever seen him, but he too was fascinated with her human form, his eyes traveling over her legs.

"Um…" he trailed off, not meeting her eyes.

_What? _Raising her eyebrows.

"Don't humans…usually, have clothes…there?" He indicated her lower half vaguely.

Ariel felt herself blushing and looked down.

"Here wait. One sec," Flounder dived down and brought back some soggy but opaque white fabric a minute later. Ariel smiled at him and wrapped the cloth around her body, tucking it in neatly in the corners. They sat in silence together for a few minutes. Flounder didn't say anything about her betraying the merpeople species, for which she was grateful, but Ariel felt like she owed him some explanation. She pointed to Flounder, and to the ocean, and drew a line across her throat.

"She threatened you?" Ariel nodded.

"I assume she gagged you." Another nod.

"Did you know that you were going to lose your voice?"

_No. _Shaking her head. Getting up, she wobbled on her legs for a minute before finding a stick to draw in the sand, wincing occasionally from the pain of the burn. She drew three suns with arrows going down, her best depiction of Eric's face, and two stick figures with their faces pressed together.

"Three days," Flounder guessed and received a nod.

"Something has to happen in three days?" Ariel pointed toward Eric.

"You have to meet Eric." Ariel shook her head and kissed him on the cheek.

Flounder ran a hand through his hair and tried to clear away the stars in his vision.

"You have to kiss him. But…you can't speak."

Ariel buried her face in her hands, knowing that her chances were infinitesimally small. Flounder pried them away and held them, telling her that it was okay, that it would turn out okay.

They were interrupted by the sound of muted footsteps in the sand. Ariel tensed and managed to get away from the ocean, propping herself up against a rock and leaning on her good leg. She cast a worried glance at Flounder, who gave a reassuring smile, taking in what would probably be the last time he saw the mermaid—no, human—he loved, before submerging himself in the water.

…..

As it turned out, it was Max who was coming. He sniffed at the new visitor and decided he remembered her, licking her hands and toes. Ariel smiled and patted his head, trying to convey that yes, she remembered him too, and yes, she was happy to see him.

Max must have understood, for he barked and wagged his tail furiously.

_Or maybe not,_ she thought, as the animal promptly turned and ran in the opposite direction.

With a sigh, Ariel dragged herself to the rocks in pain, where Eric often went since that night and sat at the edge, wondering whether she would even be able to find him in the three days.

…..

He turned the corner and almost had a heart attack from excitement.

"Hello?"

The young woman started and almost fell off the rock. It was her, his rescuer, standing less than five feet away.

"It's you…" he breathed,

"Oh, hi," she mouthed, only the words didn't come out. Eric frowned, his heart sinking. The one, she could speak. Her voice and her singing was one of the most divine things about her. It wasn't her.

"You can't speak."

She tried to say something again, and shook her head. _No._

At that moment, Max ran in again and knocked against the side of the girl's leg. She twisted in pain and fell towards the ground, but Eric caught her at the last second.

"You're hurt! Where do you live? It doesn't matter; I'll take you to the palace." His offer was received with a smile and a nod. She attempted to walk, but ended up collapsing.

"Easy! You'll kill yourself." Eric approached her and knelt down. "Is it okay if I carry you?" When Ariel nodded her assent, he scooped her up bridal style, tucking her head underneath his chin. She fit herself against him and took a deep breath, trying to smile through the pain.

She was nice, no doubt about that, but she was a stranger, and she wasn't going to stop him from finding the one who saved him. Eric was not going to give up on finding his love.

It was strange, though.

…..

That night Eric found out that the girl he took back had a large second-degree burn on the back of her leg, which was the most painful kind. He made a mental note to get to know her and find out more about her before turning his attention back to Grimsby's monologue.

"Look, Eric, I get it. It's a modern age. Most people have years and years to find their one true love, but you are a prince. You are an only child. You are not most people, and you need to marry and continue the line. It's not up to either of us. The king has ordained it. Take my advice. Marry someone now. You can always learn to love her," Grimsby lectured.

"But what if I don't, Grim? I told you, the girl who saved me, she's the one. She was-no, she is perfect. I will wait twenty years for her if I have to, but I will marry no other."

With those words, Eric stalked off to his room, opening the door so quickly that he almost discovered Ariel behind it. As it was, he caught a glimpse of red hair shooting around the corner before dismissing it as a trick of the light.

As Eric undressed, he thought again of the girl who saved him, someone with long flowy hair and a voice infused with the sun. His memory was hazy—he had nearly died—but had he died he still wouldn't have forgotten her. She could have been an angel. Hell, even if she was, Eric would find a way to get to her. He lay down, waiting for sleep to overcome him so he could dream of his One again.

Instead he dreamt of the other girl.


	8. Ariel

…..

Upon waking up, Eric cursed the stupid girl for getting into his head already, before reminding himself that it wasn't her fault for looking like the One (which he was now calling his rescuer). He put on a sweatshirt and some shorts, stopping by the infirmary on his way outside to his morning workout spot.

She was in the bed closest to the door, the only bed that was occupied. She was awake and staring at her surroundings in wonder.

"It's pretty new, yeah. We got redone last month, although there isn't much of a point having an updated infirmary if no one has been sick here for practically centuries."

Her head jerked around towards the sound, and she blushed shyly.

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Do you want to have breakfast with me today? I mean if you're well enough."

She nodded enthusiastically, and Eric responded. "Alright, great. I'll see you at 9."

…..

He tapped his fork against the plate rhythmically. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a picture of a tie on it, making it look like he had on a short sleeved suit. Eric detested suits, and only wore them when his father came to visit.

She swept in right on time, and Eric instantly felt ashamed for being so utterly underdressed. The girl had donned a dark blue-and-white summery dress that accentuated all of her curves, and that covered up the white gauze on her leg. She wasn't wearing makeup or high heels, but she looked stunning.

"Wow…I, mean…uh, you look…fantastic," Eric finished lamely.

She indicated his shirt and rolled her eyes, but Eric didn't feel like she was making fun of him. He rose and went around the table to pull out her chair, but she had already sat down and was motioning towards his own seat.

The food hadn't come out yet, so Eric tried to make conversation.

"So where are you from?" She thought about it, and shrugged her shoulders, making it clear that his question required a level of communication beyond what she was capable of.

"Then…what's your name?"

She mouthed back a response.

"Samantha?"

_No._ She did again, exaggerating every syllable.

"Marcelle?"

_NO._ She gestured all around them.

"Room? No way!"

At this, she burst out laughing, but only the sound of her breath could be heard. Eric joined in.

She paused, _probably wondering how to get through to my thick skull,_ Eric thought wryly.

This time she breathed out and pointed to the place where she had breathed.

"Oh, Air." She nodded and mouthed her whole name once more.

"Air…ee…el?" Eric sounded out.

At this she beamed and nodded.

"Ariel. That's kind of pretty." _Like you, _the words coming unbidden to his mind.

Her mouth opened ever so slightly, and too late Eric realized that he had spoken out loud.

He was thankfully given an opportunity to recover himself when Louie burst in. He was a rather sallow, unpleasant man, but Eric couldn't deny that he made the best food he'd ever tasted.

"Here you are, sir. Pancakes, bacon and egg quiche, and homemade maple syrup. Girl," the chef directed his words towards Ariel, "today you are going to have the finest meal of your life." The chef's voice was cynical and monotonous.

Eric uncovered the plates of food and was about to speak when Louie muttered under his breath, "Although a sleazy derelict like yourself isn't worthy to eat the mud off my boots. Gold-digging mongrel."

…..

Either Louie was horrible at whispering or he intended Ariel to hear, for Ariel buried her face in her hands. Eric was flooded with a wave of annoyance, which was very quickly replaced by fury. He didn't stop to think about what he was saying, and he probably wasn't very coherent either. But when he finished shouting, Louie fled from the room and Eric sat back down.

He looked across the table and saw Ariel looking down at her plate, avoiding eye contact with him.

"I'm so sorry you had to hear that."

She waved her hand towards the door that Louie had left out of and looked at Eric with wide eyes.

"Ah, don't worry about it, I've been looking for an excuse to fire that bastard for years."

This time he earned a small smile and a laugh from her. She looked so much like the One at that moment that the words were out of Eric's mouth was forming the words before he could process them.

"You seem a bit unfamiliar with this area. Do you want to maybe take a tour around the town with me?"

Her mouth formed a very tiny _oh_ and then a split second later she was nodding furiously, _yes, yes, yes._ She practically bounded around the table as he stood up, laughing at her fervor. He faced her, walking back towards the stables and carriages, telling her everything about the town and its history. The food on the table was forgotten.

…..

What seemed like a moment later they were both riding horses: Ariel's was a black stallion, Eric's a brown one. She looked like she had been riding for years, even though she had almost pulled Eric's arm out of its socket upon seeing one for the first time. They were riding so close to each other that he almost took her hand, but a part of him rethought at the last second.

_She changes nothing_, that same piece of him cautioned, but that part was becoming a minority with every moment he spent with Ariel.


	9. Problems

She replayed his words over and over again in her mind as they rode downtown.

"_Ariel…That's kind of pretty. Like you. Uhh…"_

"_How dare you say that. She is an amazing person, and better than you will ever be! She is my guest, Louie, and you know what that means? It means that you are supposed to treat like she is God walking on this earth! This is ridiculous. Get the hell out of here. I will __**never **__hear your voice nor see your face again."_

"_I'm sorry you had to hear that…Do you want to take a tour of the town with me?"_

Eric was everything she wanted. He liked her for her character, and not just her looks or something like that. He was smart, and funny, and handsome, and generous, and genuinely cared about whether she was happy. Still, Ariel knew that he wasn't in love with her yet. Because he was too hung up on the mystery girl that had saved him, which of course was her. But she couldn't tell him that, because he might think that she was crazy and because that was tantamount to treason, and what she was doing was bad enough.

Eric distracted her from her reverie.

"So, this is your first time on a horse, huh?"

She nodded.

"And you're not secretly a professional horse trainer or jockey?"

She laughed.

"Well then, Lady Ariel," Eric said dramatically, "Readysetgo!"

He nudged his horse and streaked past her with a playful look on his face.

Never one to lose easily, Ariel imitated his movements and suddenly her horse kicked into a whole new gear. Ariel was natural at horse riding, having been able to stay on a wild seahorse for seven whole minutes, but she was still almost thrown off by the difference in speed.

She was nearing Eric and probably could have passed him, but he wasn't trying properly, and if she took the lead he would go full speed and definitely win. So instead she pulled back slightly on the reins, giving the prince a ten foot lead. He twisted around on his horse and shouted, "Come on, you can do better than that! Or is your lack of experience finally catching up to you?"

She was tempted to race past him then and there, but she forced herself to stay behind him until the first shops were in sight. Then she prodded her horse into full speed and cruised in front of Eric at the last second, her face flush with victory.

The horses circled each other, calming down after the race. Eric eyed her for a few seconds before flashing her a smile.

"Hmm, I see what you did. You're a smart one, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

She tried to think of a response, but then she saw a store with black shiny objects and almost fell off her horse trying to dismount. Always eager to help, Eric swung off his horse lightly and came around to her. His hand was calloused but strong as he lifted her in the air and settled her on the ground. For a moment, their faces were inches apart, their noses almost touching. Then Eric blinked and stepped back, shaking himself out of his stupor.

"W-What did you want to see?" he asked her.

Her excitement returned and she dragged him towards the store, which contained _guns_, that were apparently used to kill people. Ariel found this an absolutely abhorrent invention of humans, but her first mouthful of ice cream made up for it. After looking at flowers, dancing, books, pie, and puppies, Ariel decided that humans did 90% good and 10% bad. The same distribution seemed to be true for people's personalities. Most of them were extremely friendly and were happy to tell her about whatever she wanted to know, but Ariel saw a few people casting disgusted looks at her, and knew that they were thinking the same thing that Louie was.

She hated the idea that people thought she wanted Eric for his money or whatever it was that humans valued, before remembering how often the same thing had been done to her, and how Flounder would completely ignore them or make disparaging remarks that they would laugh about afterwards.

_Flounder…_If things turned out happily ever after for her and Eric, she might never see him again. She might never see her father or her sisters again.

Right then and there Ariel started crying. Even the surprise that her eyes actually leaked water wasn't enough to help her get over the gravity of her situation.

The mermaids who pretended to be helpless in order to get a guy always disgusted her, and now she looked like one of them. She tried to wipe away her tears before Eric turned around, which seemed to do absolutely nothing.

He turned around to present her with a copy of his favorite movie, and his face transformed from pride to surprise.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong?"

"Ok, that was a stupid question. We could just head back. It's been a long day. We could watch this." He held up the DVD.

She nodded and managed a smile, her mouth forming the words _thank you._

"Don't ever thank me. It's my pleasure." He offered a crooked grin and his arm, and Ariel wondered why he hadn't found his perfect woman long ago.

On the way back, they raced again, but this time Eric didn't take his lead for granted and came in about a yard in front of her.

"Phew!" he whistled, running his fingers through his horse's mane. Once again he rolled easily off his horse and went to help her off her horse, but Ariel had learned from watching and was already on the ground.

He chuckled and walked towards her, stopping six inches away, close enough to kiss her.

And then he did.

…..

Ursula watched her crystal ball as Eric came over to her. She saw him stop just in front of Ariel, and lean in ever so slowly.

"NO!" she shouted, although of course they couldn't hear her. She prepared to send a spell towards their location that would cause a small earthquake when she stopped and skimmed his surface thoughts.

He was thinking of the mystery rescuer again. He was so close to Ariel, and she looked so much like the One that he wanted to kiss her, and then his hormones were taking over.

Oh, he was in love. But not with Ariel.

Ursula laughed so hard that she almost fell over, and let it happen.


	10. Some Shirtless Guy

_**As always, please R&R (read and review). **_

…..

_Why did I do that? _Eric wondered.

If it weren't for the One, he would already be in love with Ariel. She was fantastic, and she was going to make some man very happy. Just…not him.

Yet he still kissed her.

He just went to help her off of her horse, and suddenly they were face to face, and if Eric didn't know better he could have sworn she was the One. He couldn't help it.

But what was he going to do now?

After his epic screw-up, he had just muttered, "Good night," and had practically sprinted to his room. And now he was lying on his bed, trying to figure out how to build a time machine and stop himself.

Tomorrow he would let her down, Eric decided. He wouldn't even have to explain, he could just say, "You can have Thunderbolt, seeing as you're the only one who can ride him, and I'll pack up some food and things for you and you can be on your way back home."

Easy.

But then again, she hadn't even responded to his kiss. She had just stood there and stared at him. Maybe she was married. Maybe she had no feelings towards him whatsoever, in which case sending her away would be horribly awkward.

It was going to be a long night.

…..

It was that easy. He had kissed her! He had actually kissed her! It was over. Ariel had won.

So why did she still feel like she had something that she hadn't done?

Suddenly Ariel sat straight upright and shook off the sleep that had been slowly overcoming her. She hadn't said goodbye to anyone, and she owed some of her family that. That was what felt wrong.

Ariel slipped out onto the balcony and climbed down onto the sand, wearing a thin sweater over her nightgown. She padded along the beach and stopped where she had come ashore after being changed.

She scouted around for the heaviest rock that she could carry, and with much effort lobbed it as far as she could into the ocean. Merfolk rarely needed sleep, and Flounder would have spent as much time as he could around this spot to make sure that she was safe.

The sound of the splash hadn't even finished echoing when his head popped up.

"What's wrong? Is it Eric? What did he do? Or was it Ursula? Did-"

Ariel stopped him by holding up her hand and touching her lips.

"Oh my god," Flounder breathed. "He kissed you."

The expression on his face was completely unreadable, but Ariel detected a hint of sadness in his words. She slipped fully into the water and spontaneously hugged him, trying to say goodbye without any words to do so.

Flounder hugged her back hard, and they stayed still for a few moments.

He broke the silence. "I thought she might have given you your voice back if you did it. Should have known better. That slippery b—Anyway, do you want to say goodbye to any of your sisters, or Triton?"

Ariel nodded her head excitedly and made a writing motion.

"No problem." Flounder understood immediately. "Be back in a minute."

Ariel climbed back onto the rock and waited contentedly for Flounder. She spied a shadow coming up towards her after only a few seconds and smiled.

As the shadow got closer to the surface, it split into two, and Ariel realized that it was not Flounder. She sprang to her feet and ran towards the safety of the sand, but a slimy grip around her ankle sent her into the sand with a thud. She was being pulled back toward the sea. Ariel made a last ditch effort and caught the rock with her fingertips, fighting a battle that she knew she was going to lose.

She slipped and went crashing underwater.

Then a pair of strong hands wrapped around her legs and loosened the grip of whatever was pulling her down. Ariel twisted underwater and saw Flounder fighting a pair of eels with yellow eyes. One of them reared back and sank its teeth into Flounder's arm, eliciting a yell of pain. The merman struck out with his tail and knocked them both backwards into the wall, and the eels' yellow eyes faded as they went unconscious.

Flounder glanced towards Ariel and gave what was meant to be a smile but came out as a grimace of pain. He grasped her hand and they shot towards the surface, but at this point Ariel couldn't tell who was pulling who.

They erupted from the sea, Ariel gasping for air, both of them tangled together in a knot of arms and legs and tails on the sand. Ariel was the first to recover and rolled over to inspect Flounder's arm. It was a small but deep cut that made her wince just looking at it. And was it her imagination or was the wound smoking?

"I'll be fine. We mermen are made of much tougher stuff than humans," Flounder joked. "Aaahh…I dropped the paper though. Sorry."

Ariel shook her head with a smile on her face. _Idiot, your life is much more important than a goodbye or some paper._

Flounder opened his mouth to comment, but then

"Ariel?"

The voice belonged to Eric. Ariel whirled around and tried to obscure Flounder's head and shoulders, which was the only part that was not covered by the rock. She nudged him with the back of her heel, and Flounder whispered, "I'll see you around," and slid back into the ocean.

Meanwhile, Eric was standing still, taking in her bizarre appearance. He seemed almost frozen in place, and Ariel seized the opportunity to walk casually past him.

"Woah, Ariel! What the hell? I saw you just walk down to the ocean, and you got pulled underwater or something! But then you resurface like two freaking minutes later, with some shirtless guy who I guess I must have imagined, because he goes and disappears. Why-wha-how-" Eric trailed off when he realized how shocked and tired Ariel was.

"Okay, never mind. You can tell me tomorrow. Stay in my room tonight though. I don't want you drowning." When Ariel nodded her consent, they walked together in silence back to his room.


	11. Back to Square One (But Not Quite)

_So there are two ways that I can make this story go: sad or very sad. I'm serious. I don't know which one to do. Review to tell me what you think._

…..

The couch was surprisingly soft.

Under no circumstances was Eric going to sleep in the same bed as Ariel, and of course he couldn't relegate her to the couch, so he stole a pillow from the laundry room and made himself comfortable.

A knock sounded softly on the door. Eric glanced over quickly at Ariel to make sure she hadn't woken up, and softly padded to the door after throwing on a proper shirt.

"Eric," Grimsby said.

"Sshh!" Eric whispered furiously, indicating the sleeping form on his bed.

"Is that—did you—" Grimsby stammered.

"Grim, I would never take advantage of someone, especially not her. And if this visit is about my love life again—"

"Why _especially_ not her?"

Now it was Eric's turn to stammer.

"Uh…well, she…I….she's very, ah, nice," Eric trailed off.

"Nice," Grimsby gave him a skeptical look.

"She looks a lot like the girl who saved me, okay? And yes, Grim, someone did save me that night."

"How do you know she isn't the one?" Grimsby didn't sound like he was mocking him.

"She can't speak."

"Do you like her?"

Eric was so taken aback that he answered honestly.

"Yes. I like her a lot. But I know that there's someone better out there."

"Eric," the advisor's voice was gentle, "I know almost nothing about the girl who is sleeping in your bed right now. But I know that she is beautiful, and that she loves you, and that she might make a good queen if you could stop living in your dreams."

Grim turned around and left just as Ariel rolled over with wide eyes.

_What are you doing? _her eyes asked.

"Just some business to take care of. Hey, let's go for a walk on the beach in a few hours. We can talk."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I can talk and you can make your faces and slap me whenever I say something stupid." She giggled.

At that Eric left to do some research, with no idea what he was going to tell her.

…..

She heard the whole thing.

He didn't love her.

The spell wasn't broken.

After Eric left, Ariel lay facedown on her pillow and tried to keep from crying. It wasn't over, and he had to fall in love with her and kiss her _again _by sundown tonight! To try and distract herself, she crossed over to his bookshelf and pulled out a book at random.

Humans and merpeople both spoke the same language, but Ariel had discovered that the human version of the written language was very different from the loopy script she was used to. Some of the individual letters looked a bit similar, but for the life of her Ariel had no idea what the little round circle with a tail meant, nor some other letters. She promised herself that she would learn to read the human language if she and Eric ever got out of this mess.

She had tried writing a few times, but the words disappeared as soon as she tried to show it to anyone. Somewhere in the contract Ursula must have written that Ariel couldn't write anything down. Not that it mattered, because Eric probably couldn't read her version of γλώσσα either.

Ariel made a list of all the different letters in Eric's alphabet and wrote them down. Below that she made a list of all of her letters. There were twice as many of the human letters as hers. Some of them must have been capital letters. Ariel crossed out all the letters that she found at the beginning of a word or after a period.

After almost an hour, Ariel was able to match every letter to one of her own. Exhausted of the activity, she tucked the book away under Eric's pillow and headed downstairs to find him.

She found one of the maids in the kitchen and was able to communicate to her that she wanted to know where the prince was. The maid shrugged and told her that Eric had locked himself in the library with orders, "not to disturb him unless the palace was on fire".

It was then that Ariel felt a strange aching sensation on her legs, at the place where they joined together. She understood that this was where humans excreted from, but why was it happening now? She excused herself hurriedly and ran to the medical wing, hoping the nurse could tell her what was going on.

…..

Everyone who saw her exiting the infirmary probably wondered why the mute girl was blushing so fiercely, including Grimsby. He made a note to ask the nurse what had happened later, after he got it through to Eric's head not to waste any more time on a hallucination that the prince interpreted as the future love of his life.

To be honest, Grimsby thought the girl was a bit strange. She looked at the sun like it was her first time seeing it, for goodness' sakes. And what foreign place didn't have flowers or movies? Still, Eric seemed to understand her, and the girl had potential to become a proper queen with a few lessons in etiquette and such.

He hoped that the boy knew what he was doing.


	12. Dreams

_**Please review **__if you haven't already__**.**_

…..

Eric had a few qualities about himself that he liked. He was nice to people until they gave him a reason not to be. He was athletic. He was honest. And he _never_ gave up on anything.

So naturally, with their walk five minutes away, he still had no idea what to say to Ariel.

The edge of the sun was creasing the horizon when Eric knocked on her door. After a few seconds, the door opened and all thoughts disappeared from his head.

She was in a dark blue dress that stopped a few inches above her knees. Once again she didn't have any makeup on and had donned plain black sandals, but she was more breathtaking than anyone Eric had ever seen.

"You look good." _Understatement of the year_, Eric added silently.

She looked down at her feet. _Oh, this old thing?_

He held out his elbow, and she laced her arm through his.

"So about two weeks ago I turned 19," Eric told her. "But then this fire started on board, and I didn't make it off the boat in time. I was drowning. I should have died."

"But this girl, she saved me. This beautiful girl, and she basically carried me a mile back to the shore. I think she was hurt too. But when I woke up, she said that she had to go, and she disappeared.

I think she might be a mermaid."

At his words Ariel stopped and gaped at him. _Are you insane?_

"She was injured, carrying a 163-pound person, a mile away from shore. And when she left, she left _back towards the water_. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew that I would wait a lifetime just to spend one day with her. She was my only goal, and the only person I ever wanted."

Ariel nodded sadly, her eyes willing him to read her mind, but this time Eric had no idea what she was saying.

"Then three days ago I found this woman who washed up on the shore, someone who looked just like my rescuer, but she couldn't speak."

Ariel pointed to herself. _Me?_

"Of course. What, do you think I just find mute women half drowned on the beach all the time?" he teased.

She laughed, a silent laugh, and he found himself wishing beyond anything else that she had a voice.

"If it weren't for this other girl, I would have fallen in love with you as soon as I saw you. I was just…holding back, I guess. Waiting for the one that haunted my dreams."

His companion's eyes filled with small tears, threatening to spill onto her cheeks.

"But they're just dreams. Dreams are so fluid, and when you wake up you're not even sure you had them in the first place. Dreams don't make sense. They don't even really exist. And maybe that girl doesn't either."

Ariel looked like she wanted to burst with a thousand different emotions, but tactfully held back to let him finish.

"I was a moron. Still am. But even this moron wouldn't refuse what's right in front of him."

"Ariel," he drifted off, taking her hands in his.

He watched her lips mouth his name, but this time a sound came out of them.

"Eric?"

It was a voice, _her_ voice.

Eric jerked his head around and saw a woman walking on the sand towards them.

The One.


	13. What is Destined to Be

…..

"Eric." The woman walked towards him and extended her arms. She did look like Ariel, with the same blue eyes and radiant hair, albeit brown. She was wearing a gray dress that left very little to the imagination, and a cold beauty and an aura of power pulsed around her.

He felt Ariel stiffen beside him, and almost drew an arm around her before he stopped, realizing that he didn't really need her anymore

_Wait, what? No, that's horrible._

Eric smacked his own head, hard.

"Eric, it's me." The One had stopped a few feet from him an Ariel.

"And who, exactly, are you?" Eric asked cautiously.

She smiled, a harsh smile, not at all like the one she had given him the first time they met.

"Ursula," she purred, directing each syllable towards Ariel.

If Ariel had been afraid before, now she was scared beyond belief. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she tried to make herself invisible to Ursula.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She just shook her head and waved a hand towards his One, who was still standing in place.

Something was wrong, Eric could feel it in his bones. But this was the One, the girl he was destined to fall in love with, the girl who had saved him. Was Ariel just jealous?

Eric found that extremely hard to believe. Ariel probably cared about his happiness as much as he did. She seemed so generous and warm.

"Eric, I've come back for you. I changed myself for you. We are fated to be together. Come to me. Leave her."

Ursula's voice was soft and melodic, but the words came out of her mouth all wrong, even though they were a declaration of love.

"We are fated to be together," Eric repeated. Ursula came even closer, extending a hand for him to take.

"You and I."

Eric's voice came out much stronger than he thought, considering that he was overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation he was in.

"I'm sorry I led you to assume that, but I would rather not let fate do the choosing," Eric said, grasping Ariel's hand and squeezing it gently.

Ursula looked taken aback.

"Well then, I'll leave you two some privacy." Her voice was thick what sounded like tears, but her eyes showed absolutely no sadness. Eric wondered why he had built up his hopes for someone emotionless like her.

He turned to Ariel, who flung her arms around him immediately. His hands found her shoulders, and he pulled her back to see her elated face, to kiss her.

Instead she looked terrified. She was staring at something behind him.

Eric twisted around with the speed of a gymnast, but still not fast enough to escape a black rope that wrapped around his neck and jerked him backwards.

…..

It wasn't a rope, that much Eric could tell. He strained his neck and got a glimpse of his captor, and what little air he had in his lungs escaped in a gasp.

Where Ursula had been standing was a monstrous purple and black octopus-creature. Instead, of feet, her body separated into suction cup tentacles, one of which was wrapped around his neck.

_Gross, _Eric thought.

He had pulled Ariel along with him at first, leaving her on the sand. He could only watch as she rolled to her feet, looking surprisingly determined.

_Let him go_, she mouthed. The creature just laughed.

"What was that, dear? I couldn't hear you. But here-" the monster opened one of her hands and released a golden ball of light, which zoomed into Ariel faster than his eyes could follow. "You'll need this back. I doubt this idiot would be able to realize his incompetency anyways without it." Now her voice was scratchy and mocking.

"Ursula, you asshole." Eric's eyes widened when the words came out of Ariel's mouth.

It was her. It was her all along. That's why she had the burn. That's why she hadn't seen any of the things he'd shown her before. That's why it almost looked like she came from the water itself.

Why was he such an imbecile?

"You." That was all he could manage before Ursula's grip tightened around his neck and he was left wanting for air.

"Yes, yes, she's your soulmate, and all that touchy 'I love you' trash," Ursula spat. "Now, back to business. Here is my new proposal. You and the boy come with me willingly-"

"Not an option. He is not part of this," Ariel interrupted.

"How quaint. I guess I'll just have to destroy everyone you hold closest to your heart, starting," Ursula produced a knife and slashed along Eric's arm, drawing out a ragged yell, "with him."


	14. Lovebird Idiots

…..

Ariel let out a scream of her own as blood trickled out from Eric's wound.

"Stop. Stop it NOW," she demanded, trying to sound fierce and doing a good job except for her hands, which were trembling ever so slightly.

"I'm just helping you make your decision, Princess. Just know that a similarly painful death awaits your father, your sisters, and everyone else in the kingdom. I have a series of explosives ready to detonate, and I am very sure that your people will be just close enough to get maimed horribly," Ursula said conversationally, holding up a remote with just one button.

Ariel sucked in a breath, realizing just how cleverly Ursula had planned everything. When something serious happened, like if a seaquake occurred or the youngest princess went missing, the entire town would gather in a building and discuss what needed to be done about it.

Ursula read her expression correctly and chuckled.

"Not bad, eh? I surprise even myself sometimes. But I'm a reasonable creature. As a show of faith that you'll make the right decision, I'll let him go. It gives you both an opportunity to make the choice, and as a lovely bonus, you both have to live with the knowledge that he could have kissed you, he could have saved you, but he didn't."

The Ecaelia dropped Eric to the ground and retreated about twenty feet away from them. Ariel rushed over to him immediately, unwinding the outer layer of gauze from her leg as she did so. She wrapped it around the cut on his arm as Eric sat up.

He drew her in close, tucking her head underneath his chin, whispering, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, what have I done…"

"Sshh, it's alright. Ursula would have just planned it differently, with the same end result," Ariel comforted him.

"We have to go with her," Eric told her. "God, this is awful. I should have just kissed you the first second I saw you."

Ariel placed a finger on his lips and just laid her head on his shoulder, her face partially hidden by his curls, and whispered, "If you have a pocketknife or something like it, pat my shoulder twice."

Eric reached over and did so, and Ariel's heart leapt.

"Okay," she continued, "when I say the word 'mistake', I want you to throw it at her hand or tentacle or whatever is holding the remote. Don't hit the remote, though; you might detonate it. Tap your fingers on my back if you can do it."

Eric tapped his fingers on her back.

"After that, I'm going to run for the remote and throw it to you. Yell out as loud as you can for Grimsby or someone, and then shout 'Flounder' towards the sea, if there's a rock nearby throw it for good measure. Merpeople have fantastic hearing and he's been watching me, he should be here within a minute."

Eric turned his head into her skin and whispered, "You skipped a step in your plan. When you throw me the remote, you're going to run back to me and we're going to make sure that that evil bitch never hurts you again."

Ariel smiled and nodded slightly against him, and abruptly stood up, brushing the sand off of her dress. Eric wisely imitated the motions.

"If we come with you, how do we know that you won't detonate the explosions anyway?"

Ursula waved a claw and a contract appeared. It floated towards Ariel. The sheet had only a few words on it in large letters. Ariel read it out loud for Eric's benefit.

"I, Ursula, promise that if Ariel Sienna and Eric Armstrong sign their names at the bottom of this paper, that I will not, under any circumstances, detonate any and all explosions that I have planted."

There was no fine print, and no back side.

"I had this premade," Ursula remarked casually, which irritated Ariel more than anything.

"Good, because I would hope that you think more of us than two lovebird idiots who would make the huge mistake of—"

Eric threw the knife.

…..

It seemed to Eric as though Ursula did think of them as lovebird idiots, because she practically didn't react at all, not expecting any sort of resistance. The knife sank into the witch's index finger. She howled with rage and pain and reflexively dropped the remote. Ariel had timed her run perfectly and managed to scoop up the device and hurl it in Eric's direction. He dived and caught it as she darted back towards him.

Not fast enough.

Ursula was still clutching her four-fingered hand and grimacing in pain, but evidently she had recovered enough to reach out with a single tentacle and snag Ariel's leg, bringing her crashing to the ground painfully.

"Why, you little fools…" Ursula let the words hang in the air before Ariel lashed out with her other foot, and with another shriek of outrage the sea witch released her. Ariel started to run toward him, but stumbled and fell about five feet away.

_Oh, God, did she twist her ankle?_

Eric was able to answer that question for himself when her legs started to turn green and she let out an ear-splitting scream.


	15. SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZM!

…..

_No. No, no, no, no._

This was far worse than a twisted ankle. But the sun hadn't set completely yet

Eric ran forward and pulled her backwards and away from Ursula, who for some reason was staying frozen in place. He met her lips with his own, roughly, fiercely, desperately. Her cries, rather than stopping, doubled in volume. Not knowing what else to do, he kissed her again, and again got no reaction.

"Grimsby, Grim, help! Attack! Uh, Flounder?!" Eric bellowed, trying to remember whether that was what Ariel had told him. He found a rock and threw it as hard as he could into the ocean, all the while supporting an all but unconscious Ariel with one hand. The splash seemed to startle Ursula out of her reverie.

Eric wasn't sure how he managed to process the next few minutes of his life. Everything happened all at once. In fragments.

Grimsby came running out of the palace with two swords, one of which belonged to Eric. Ursula advanced on Eric, a staff she had apparently been summoning pointed towards him. Grimsby stood in front of Eric and dropped Eric's sword to the ground behind his back.

Eric snuck a glance at Ariel, who had definitely blacked out. She…had legs. Eric could have cried from happiness, but he had to focus on the task at hand. So instead he lowered her to the ground, pocketing the remote she held in her hand. He drew his sword, his oh-so-familiar sword, and charged.

…..

Eric had never dealt with magic, or mermaids, or whatever the hell Ursula was, but fighting was something he had been learning since he was four, even though as an only child he would never be allowed in battle. Fighting was clean and simple; it was an element he would be much more comfortable in than Ursula.

Grimsby had similar training and was almost as good as he was. Together they should have been able to defeat anyone in a two to one scenario. Unfortunately, Ursula's ten total appendages and her sinister-looking staff seemed to make up for whatever advantages they had.

He and Grimsby shared a look and almost instantly understood what the plan was. Eric began making a wide and wary arc around Ursula, who watched him carefully. She didn't even move as he circled out of her line of vision.

_SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZM!_

A blue-white ball shot toward Eric out of the top of Ursula's staff. His razor-sharp reflexes saved him and the ball struck a rock behind him. A sizzling sound behind him told him that whatever substance the ball was made of was corrosive, and that one hit was all it would take.

They were now officially at a disadvantage.

Eric feinted towards the sea witch and one of her tentacles shot out to intercept him. He slid underneath it and struck upwards with his sword, hacking it off. _SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZM! _Eric rolled to the side and stood back up, but a sizzling sound coming from his shirt told him that he hadn't escaped the ball entirely. Without hesitation he ripped it off, only to have to dive sideways as another ball was shot in his direction.

On Ursula's other side, Grimsby was being overcome by a mass of tentacles that were snaking in the direction of Ariel's body. The advisor had already cut off several, but it seemed to annoy the sea witch more than anything. Another acid sphere blasted towards him, grazing his left leg. Eric could tell that they were fighting a losing battle.

Suddenly a rock whizzed out of the ocean and smacked Ursula in the back of the head. A merman's face and torso emerged from the ocean, and the tables started to turn. Grim and Eric cut off all the remaining tentacles, and some of the ones that were starting to grow back. He even thought he saw Ariel getting to her feet out of the corner of his eye, but a yell of pain drew his attention in another direction.

Flounder was clinging onto a rock with one arm, the other one a bloody mass thanks to one of Ursula's spheres. She laughed and hurled another one towards Ariel, and Grim was forced to sacrifice his sword to stop it. The Ecaelia advanced towards him and Ariel, who was barely able to stand up even though she was leaning heavily against the wall. Eric threw aside all reason and ran in front of his beloved as another _SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZM! _sounded. He was too far away to her, so he dived at the last second, extending his body in front of Ariel's to take the blow.

He heard another howl and a deafening boom before an anvil slammed down on his head and he blacked out.


	16. Lost and Found

…..

It felt like he was looking through a kaleidoscope. Thousands of tiny, fuzzy images whirled inside his head. His eyes burned with the sudden exposure to the light, but when his view stopped spinning he wouldn't have closed them for the world.

She was there, her face smiling above him, just like she had when they first met.

Eric leaned forward and pulled her down into a kiss, not knowing and not caring about anything else for the moment. They broke apart after what seemed like forever, but it was still too short for him.

"At first something seemed kind of déjà vu-ish, but I can't quite place it." Ariel laughed, yet her eyes were still searching his face in a way that made him wonder what he'd done.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Well, everything." Ariel amended. "You've been out for five days."

"What?" Eric practically shouted. The last events in his memory were still crystal clear. It couldn't possibly have been 120 hours since then.

"When I went for the remote, I grabbed the pocketknife you threw. Then…I started turning back. The sun was setting. But you kissed me, and I remember blacking out from the pain but when I woke up, I was still human. I think you did it when the sun hadn't fully set. It was, ah, perfect timing." As she spoke, she relaxed down onto the hospital bed with him, turning her body toward his. Eric winced and almost said something as she brushed against some of his injuries, but he didn't want her to stop talking.

"I still had the pocketknife in one hand when I regained consciousness, but I couldn't really move. It was a good thing Grimsby was blocking me from her, otherwise, well," She let the possibility hang in the air.

"I was going to throw it when she was aiming at us, but I didn't react fast enough to her corrosive ball-thing. I hit her in the eye just before you tackled me. Killed her." Ariel's voice was a monotone at this part, showing neither regret nor joy at Ursula's death.

"You pushed me out of the way. I would have died. But part of the rock behind us exploded out and hit you in the head." She extended her neck and kissed him again, just barely brushing his lips. "You still have a concussion, but in three weeks you can leave the infirmary."

"I can't stay here for a month! Just sitting here?! It can't be that bad!" Eric protested, although the ache in his temples told him differently.

"Eric, you almost died! You were bleeding so much…I—I almost lost you too." Ariel's voice and her brave face broke. She buried her face under his chin and cried. Eric hugged her back and ran his fingers through her hair in a feeble (he thought) attempt to comfort her.

"Okay," he fumbled. "I'll stay here for the three weeks. It won't be so bad, with you to keep me company. We can watch our entire collection of movies. Wait, too—oh geez." A feeling of horror dawned on Eric as he realized what the word "too" implied.

"Yeah." Ariel's voice was a brittle whisper. "Other than a dislocated shoulder Grimsby is fine. Except when you fell, the remote in your pocket was triggered. Only a couple of the explosives worked, but my eldest sister didn't make it. And Flounder…" A few stray tears traced her cheeks. "His arm…he lost too much blood. There was nothing to do but hold his hands. His hand. He said to be happy, and then he told me…that he…had always loved me and just wanted me to". Ariel never finished her sentence, instead holding him tightly and repeating, "Oh God," over and over.

Eric felt jealous for a fraction of a second before a crushing guilt overwhelmed him. Flounder had to sit there and watch as Ariel fell in love with another man. Him. And now he had died for someone who didn't even love him back. He couldn't even imagine the depth of emotion Ariel must have been feeling.

"He loved you, so your happiness must have meant a lot to him. He had an honorable death too—he saved so many people. I'll have a plaque put up, a statue for him." Eric blurted out any thought that came into his head. Ariel nodded against his chest, but she never stopped crying, and when he adjusted himself for another kiss she shrank away.

Flounder was clinging onto a rock with one arm, the other one a bloody mass thanks to one of Ursula's spheres. She laughed and hurled another one towards Ariel, and Grim was forced to sacrifice his sword to stop it. The Ecaelia advanced towards him and Ariel, who was barely able to stand up even though she was leaning heavily against the wall. Eric threw aside all reason and ran in front of his beloved as another _SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZM! _sounded. He was too far away to her, so he dived at the last second, extending his body in front of Ariel's to take the blow.

He heard another howl and a deafening boom before an anvil slammed down on his head and he blacked out.


	17. Broken

_**Review. Always. Please. :D**_

_Disclaimer: See chapter one._

…..

She and Eric stayed apart for the next week and a half. She visited very briefly just once a day, and their topics of conversation were shallow and light. Eric had correctly assumed that she needed time to get over everything and was giving her as much space as possible, but she always saw the relief in his features whenever she came back to the hospital wing. _I thought you might not come back. I thought you might not love me anymore._ The words always hung in the air between them, even though he never said them.

Ariel did love him. She had never told him that, but he knew. She knew that he knew. Now, though, just when she was finally capable of uttering those words to him, she couldn't do it. Not without picturing his, Flounder's, face.

She had stopped sleeping. Rather than give her a respite, the nightmares taunted her, told her she could have done something differently. Instead she wandered along the beach, but she always walked in a small circle. So that she wouldn't have to come back to those familiar parts, and remember.

"_Ariel, don't even try. Don't even try to tell me that I'm not dying. You have the worst lying face I've seen in my entire life." He was holding her hand hard, a smile plastered over the lines of pain etched on his face._

"_Tell my parents that I was happy. I was always happy. Tell them that I died with a smile on my face for the girl that I loved."_

_She froze, overcome by a torrent of shock._

"_Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry Flounder, I didn't know, what did I do to you. Spare me. I only told you because I wanted to say it just once. And don't you dare say it back."_

"_Flounder," she whispered._

"_No. Don't you dare. You love him, and he loves you, and even from the start I was okay with that. Just make sure he knows that if he does anything to you I'm going to come back and haunt his sorry ass to hell." Flounder had silent tears coursing down his face, but he looked more determined than Ariel had ever seen him._

"_One more thing. No, two. Do me a couple favors, princess."_

"_Anything. I promise," she returned without pause._

"_Live a happily ever after. Prove that the fairy tales are right. Don't forget me, but don't remember me either. It's not fair for me to condemn you to a life of mourning." His grip on her hand was starting to loosen._

"_And tell life I said hey sometime."_

_She couldn't speak, so she nodded over and over again, but at this point he couldn't speak anymore either._

_She held his hand long after he was gone. _

She was kneeling in the surf, paralyzed by the mere memory.

"Ariel."

She turned on him, all of the anger at their last meeting just another memory.

"Triton."

Her father flinched slightly at her refusal to say, "Daddy," but let it pass without comment.

"They both would have done it again," he told her, referring to Ariana as well.

"I wouldn't have. Daddy, they gave up the rest of their lives just to give me a better one. I was a lost cause." She let out the words that had been haunting her for the last week.

"Flounder saved half the people in the kingdom, including me! Don't be selfish and slander his death just to make yourself feel worse."

"Go away." Ariel's voice was a deadly hiss; she wanted to throw something, to wipe her father's solemn expression off his face.

Her father left, but his parting shot stripped everything away from her.

"Goodbye, princess. Make your prince a happy one."

_Goodbye, princess._

_Princess._

The last sentence replayed in her head, but the voice that spoke it wasn't her father's

…..

Eric had been able to maneuver his way into a bed for the remaining week of his recovery time, but he could tell that that was as far as he could push Grimsby. He just wanted to be able to stand up, to go jogging, to go sailing, anything to take his mind off of the love of his life.

Unfortunately he could walk for barely ten minutes before he had to sit down again.

Ariel smiled at him today. It hurt him to know that it was probably the first time in over a week. It hurt him more to think that it might be one of the few times he ever saw her smile again.

It wasn't like he didn't have _anything_ to do. He had been working on a project for her, had even put it partway into action, but he was completely petrified of seeing her reaction. It could break her beyond repair, if she wasn't broken already. He decided that it would be either the worst or the best thing he ever did.

Maybe both.


	18. Unexpected

_This one's a bit longer. Hope you like it._

_R&R please._

…..

It was his first day out of bed.

After three tortuously loooooooong weeks, Eric was more than ready to get back on his feet. He started off with only a half a mile jog and spent half of the time he usually did lifting weights, but he came off of it twice as tired. He was about to go for another lap just to prove to himself that he could, but her voice distracted him.

"Eric?"

She was still quieter, more subdued, less radiant than the woman he fell in love with. But she was better, much better, than she had been a fortnight ago.

"Ariel," he responded carefully. "Hey."

After a few seconds of watching her look out towards the sea, he asked, "Want to go for a swim?"

To his surprise she replied, "Sure, but don't expect me to wait up for you with your slowpoke human legs."

He laughed, wondering if maybe she wasn't that broken after all.

…..

He waited on the edge of the beach, the water just barely brushing his ankles. He had only a pair of trunks on but had stored a pair of goggles just in case she wanted to go underwater.

Eric frowned as Ariel came into his field of vision. It looked like she was wearing…a nightgown?

He shouted out to her, "I'm not sure you'll find that too easy to swim in."

"Oh I know," she called out, "that's why I'll be taking it off."

She waded into the ocean next to him. They didn't speak, but for some reason the silence didn't feel tense or awkward. At last, when they were so far out that Eric could only feel the ground when he stood on his tiptoes, Ariel pulled her soggy nightgown over her head and left it to sink in the water, leaving her in a purple bra that looked like it was made of seashells. Eric immediately felt uncomfortable and focused on a spot on the horizon.

"You might want to remove those," Ariel said, gesturing to his trunks.

"Um…okay?" Eric felt himself blushing furiously as he imitated what Ariel had done to her nightgown.

Suddenly an odd feeling tickled his legs. Eric bent down to rub them, but discovered that they were being fused together. He shot a confused look at Ariel, who was suppressing a giggle. She did a flip underwater, and in doing so exposed her supple green tail. With a flash of understanding, Eric moved his legs—tail—up and gazed at it in wonder.

"It's a gift from Daddy," Ariel said, swimming up behind him.

Eric turned to face her awkwardly, getting used to the strange feeling of having a tail.

"It was very thoughtful," he remarked, but he didn't pay attention to her response, his mind wandering to her close proximity to him and the fact that he hadn't kissed her in weeks.

"Okay?"

"What? I mean, uh, yeah, sure. Sorry. I kind of zoned out." Eric clapped a hand to his head.

"Headache?" Ariel asked, looking worried.

"No, no. I was just, ah, thinking." Eric said feebly.

"Alright then. Most fish stay away from us, but some of the stupider ones, like sharks, try to attack us. Steer clear of them. Try to keep me within your sight, and don't panic and think that you won't be able to breathe. That's what I did my first time up on the surface."

"Simple enough," Eric confirmed.

"Well then, Prince Eric," Ariel imitated what he'd done to her almost a month ago. "To the hoops. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrreadysetgo!" She dived underwater.

Eric knew that she wasn't even trying against him. From the beginning she led the way through the obviously familiar territory, just out of arms reach of Eric. He knew that she was doing it on purpose, just to annoy him and to try and provoke him into trying his hardest.

Still, Eric was much too enthralled with the sights around him. He looked at the diverse and colorful scenery, and mused that Ariel must love him a great deal to be willing to leave everything she had here for him.

He knew what the hoops were the moment they came within sight. They stuck out like a sore thumb, a dash of black against everything else bright and beautiful. They were huge rings that rose some hundred feet in the air, a gleaming, intimidating, and perfect work of architecture. Eric resolved to interrogate Ariel on exactly how her blacksmiths and craftsmen were able to make things this fantastic.

She was still swimming just two feet in front of him, an air of flowing grace about her. When they were a few meters from the first hoop, Eric lunged forward and grabbed Ariel's tail. She twisted in surprise and tried to bat him off, but Eric held on stubbornly, eventually pulling her behind him just as he passed through the black ring.

He let go of her tail immediately and she darted underneath him, coming up to his level just a few inches in front of him.

"You cheated," she accused, but her eyes made the accusation far more light-hearted. Something about her expression triggered something in Eric, and he realized that he hadn't seen it on her face since she was mute.

"Will you forgive me?" he breathed, wrapping an arm around her tiny waist, drawing her close enough to feel her skin on his.

"I-you-I-"

Eric cut off Ariel's stammering answer by putting one hand on her cheek and pulling her in for a kiss. Her entire body tensed, and he thought she was going to pull away. Instead, she melted into him and kissed him back forcefully, running her fingers through his hair.

He couldn't form a single coherent thought.

Thank God he didn't need to.

…..

She followed him blindly through the halls of the palace, still in a daze about their kiss. She had never felt a heat like that. It was as if Eric was pouring some of his soul into her, leaving her overflowing with warmth

Eric stopped so abruptly that she almost walked into him. "Close your eyes," Eric requested. When she hesitated, he gave her a puppy-dog look. "C'mon, don't you trust me?"

She did.

Eric enveloped her hands in his and guided her gently. As he did so, he started talking nervously.

"So, um, I don't know if you will like it or not. If it's too soon or you don't want it, just say the word and I'll have it torn down within the hour. I just wanted you to know that while my feelings are nowhere close to as severe as yours, I know what you're going through. I get that you need time, and that it'll always be hard to cope with it. But I want to have your back for this—for everything, but especially this. Yeah, I hope it helps."

They turned a corner and he let go of her hands for a second, saying, "Keep your eyes closed, okay?" She heard a loud rustling, as if fifty birds had all decided to fly at the same time. "All right, you can open 'em." A gasp escaped her lips as she realized what it was. Who it was.

Eric had adopted a casual pose against it that did nothing to hide the concerned look he was wearing. It was twice as tall as him, and just as lifelike.

Eric must have drawn the statue out first before commissioning it, because Flounder looked exactly the same. He was curled up in a playful arc, his hand outstretched towards the ceiling. His tail was connected to a platform that stood out above a marble depression.

"If you like it, I'll have it put at the center of the town square as a fountain." Eric was suppressing the hopefulness in his tone, trying not to show her how much it meant to him and how much effort he must have put in.

"I designed it myself," he added, confirming her suspicions.

She burst into tears.


	19. His

_Well, this is my end. I may or may not write a version based off this, but it will be mostly unrelated. Thanks for reading!_

…..

_Oh, Christ._

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I should have known that it was a stupid idea-"

He was cut off as Ariel practically tackled him. He stumbled back before lifting her into the air and spinning her around.

"This, this is fantastic," Ariel said breathlessly when he set her down. "It's the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you."

"Don't ever thank me. It's my pleasure." He winked. She started laughing and met his lips with her own.

Eric wasn't the best with women, but he knew that he'd gotten something right. But of course, he had to mess it up again. He had to say the stupidest and most inopportune thing that came into his head.

"Marry me," he blurted. She broke away and looked back at him with astonished eyes. After a brief, panicked pause, he began again. "Ariel."

"No," she interrupted.

Eric felt his heart stop and his smile start to crumble before she added, "Sorry. I just wanted to see your reaction. Darling, there is no scenario in which I would ever refuse."

_Maybe this romance thing won't be so hard after all, _he thought.

…..

He waited anxiously, staring down the beach as if he could will her to appear. Everyone around him was doing the same thing, but their marriages didn't depend on her showing up. In fact, the way the Ariel's cousin was ogling him he rather thought she would just _love_ to have the bride not show up. Yep, she would be just fine with replacing Ariel on their one week honeymoon on this island.

He turned to stone as she appeared in the archway.

She had absolutely forbidden anyone to tell him about the dress, so the only thing he could gather beforehand was that it was green in honor of undersea tradition. It was a simple dress, a rich emerald color that was beyond description. It was strapless but not revealing, he could just make out the dark blue earrings he had given her hidden behind an elaborate braid. As walking without heels was new enough to her, she had elected to wear simple white sandals that blended in with the beach.

"You're late," he whispered.

"Since it doesn't start without me, I can't be late."

Eric stifled a laugh as Triton looked somewhat disapprovingly at them before beginning.

"Ladies and gentlefish…"

Eric tuned out the rest and devoted the time instead to staring at his almost-wife, waiting for his part in the ceremony he knew by heart. Somehow he managed to spit out the word, "Always," although it was so soft that only Ariel heard. He couldn't resist it any longer as Triton concluded and gathered her in to kiss her before the sea king had finished the sentence. Apparently that was expected, though, because the merfolk started cheering at the exact same time.

All he wanted to do was carry her over the threshold of their tiny cabin and hold her close all night, recreate the heat they had shared that one time, and judging by her subtle expression she shared the same opinion.

But then again, they had the rest of their lives to do that.


End file.
